We all packed our passports for this meeting as we were heading just across the border into Norfolk! The sand dune habitat at Yarmouth has produced some interesting sightings in the recent past for group member Brian Jones and he kindly allowed us to join him. Main target for the evening was hopefully the Sand dart.
10 moth-ers met up and 10 traps were deployed (a mix of actinics and mvs) covering the dune grassland and shoreline. It was a warm evening with a very light breeze, perfect conditions for trapping a coastal site!
Moths soon started to appear at the lights in numbers and it was no surprise that Sand dart made an appearance early on. In fact we saw at least 30 by the end of the session. There were a lot of interesting species recorded, mostly on the micro front. It was great to see traps brimming with moths yet again.
Here are the highlights from the list of just over 100sp.
Aethes tesserana, Anerastia lotella (abundant), Aphomia zelleri (a number), Epiblema costipunctana (a few), Archer’s dart (plenty), Cochylis molliculana, Bordered sallow, Shore wainscot (common), Water ermine (2), Rosy wave (3), Nyctegretis lineana, Pediasia fascelinella (2), Lyme grass (5), Platytes alpinella, Eulamprotes wilkella, Striped wainscot (2), White colon (4), Acleris comariana, Ptycholomoides aeriferanus, Cochylis pallidana (at least 50 of this very local tortrix seen), Cydia microgrammana (a few), Dark dagger (checked), Homeosoma nimbella (abundant, again, another very local species). Plus a few more micros to dissect at a later date.
Overall this was in my opinion one of the most interesting moth events I have been to for a while with a lot of scarce species seen including some new micros for me.
Thanks go to Brian for organizing this meeting
Neil
Water ermine
Epiblema costipunctana
Nyctegretis lineana
Sand dart (male)
Pediasia fascelinella
Cochylis pallidana
Homeosoma nimbella (tbc)
Sand dart (female)